You probably know that your water is a precious resource. You and your family can’t live long without water. We’ve been in the trenches, working closely with our customers, to learn through years of experience – what’s the most effective way to remotely monitor water and other sensors? Below we’ll share some recent industry news that you’ll likely find helpful.

Is your water safe? Pipeline companies need to remove diesel contaminated slurry from quarries near water wells in Ohio. Many of these projects costs billions of dollars to mitigate after violations have been cited by the Environmental Protection Agency. Do you think any of these dumpings, like slurry for lubricating equipment, go unnoticed?

Some U.S. counties and towns have had to declare a state of emergency and ask for emergency funding after a disaster caused them to lose their water wells. And on the other side of the globe, the world’s most ambitious water transfer program is under way in China. However, this water way aqueduct is not enough according to this Bloomberg analysis.

Where does this leave us today when it comes to your water crisis? Effective water monitoring systems are crucial for proper management of our precious water resources.

Today’s Industrial IoT and remote sensor monitoring technologies give you, your teams, and your organization the most cost-effective ways to save your money and time with automatic water monitoring systems.

Take a gander at the photos to see noise monitoring systems that use IoT devices to measure decibels. These solar powered systems send regular noise sensor measurements to Tools.Valarm.net for your database management, analytics, graphing, mapping, and alerting.

Floods and rising water levels are continuing to grow more extreme in our world. Recent storms have endangered the city of Houston, Texas, with a lot of flooding risks. Here in this news article you can see photos of the water rescues, emergency management, and how heavy rains caused a natural disaster.

Similarly, in New Orleans, Louisiana (a.k.a., NOLA) inundating rains tested the city’s flood response system. According to this story, citizens found that the flood monitoring alerts and information left a lot to be desired, in other words a failure.

Meanwhile, dangerous drought conditions are occurring in other parts of the USA. The U.S. Drought Mitigation Monitor Mitigation Center produces and classifies drought reports. Dry conditions in your world are making drought risks right now in places like:

How far will you go for water? To the moon and back? There might be more water on the moon than we thought according to NPR and Scientific American.

During droughts, you’ve got folks all over the U.S. using quite a lot of water, like more than a gallon per minute by these Tampa Bay water hogs. While in Florida, water main breaks and repair activities have caused road closures. And citizens there are advised to boil all water before drinking or cooking. Similarly, Utah residents have been asked to limit water use after a major water line break.

You’re seeing droughts, water rationing, and weird water issues all over the world. In Rome, Italy, the climate, environment, and cities are drier than they’ve been for decades. Due to the heatwave, water sources could be turned off for 8 hours a day.

You ever wondered or been curious about what gets sent down the water drain? Lots of rubber bouncy balls, a rope monster, and even a snapping turtle have been found in wastewater treatment facilities in the Chicago area.

Even though Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes and quite a load of water, there are still critical water crises. For example, there are the 5 state officials charged with involuntary manslaughter for the Flint public health crisis that led to an outbreak of disease, suffering children, and lead poisoning.

But according to this story, global companies and corporations like Nestle don’t pay anything for water, and they’re continuing to increase their water usage. This increase in pumping can lead to negative effects on local wetlands, aquatic habitats, and stream flow.

Also in the Midwest U.S., Minnesota is having more water quality problems. This article calls for something dramatic to happen for water management reform and improvement of water resources.

Since the federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) isn’t providing as much money to local and state governments for safeguarding and protecting ecosystems like water and air, other organizations need to help out with mandates and responsibility for monitoring our environment.

Are we seeing more flooding these days than in the past?

This study researched how often floods are happening and the impacts and damage they cause in the US. Due to sea level rise, flood risk management is an increasingly important need for your and your family’s community.

This write-up breaks down how coastal areas will be more prone to hazardous environmental events like floods if greenhouse gas emissions don’t decrease. Key US cities and locations like San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Hawaii, and Florida are forecasted to be deluged in more floods in the coming years.

Flood monitoring systems are 1 important way that Industrial IoT sensors and remote environmental monitoring technologies are helping keep you, your community, and your family safe. With early warning systems and detection of water levels, we’ll be able to better steer clear of hazards that mother nature and water create. Are you ready to help?

When’s the worst time for air quality? What season is pollution at its poorest?

Perhaps you believe it’s winter with the inversion layers keeping particulates in the air that you breathe into your lungs.

Or perhaps summer with the ozone sticking around from high heat. Maybe it’s spring with all of the pollen, dust, and other allergens getting blown around.

In the end, it depends on where you and your family live, but air quality issues are becoming more common all year round. What’s goin’ on?

New research suggests that plants are a big part of air pollution when it’s really hot outside. Don’t we want trees and plants to clean the air. It’s pretty surprising that during heat waves plants emit more chemicals that react and form ozone.

Of course there are lots of other sources for poor air quality like food choices since every action has a cost. And cities like Salt Lake City, Utah, are taking steps to improve urban air quality. This includes better transportation alternatives, like electric or natural gas, and switching refineries to different fuels.

Improving your air quality helps you immediately feel better and has long-term benefits like a longer life.

According to this MIT study, air pollution in China causes thousands of death every day, millions per year.

Poor air quality contributes to an early death from things like cancers and heart, lung, and stroke disorders.

A lot of the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) in our lungs is due to transportation vehicles and exhausts.

Is air quality worse than it’s been in previous years, or are we just more aware of it now?

Environmental protection agencies are issuing more air quality alerts all over the US.

Water is a hot issue today. No matter where you live, it seems like there’s not enough or too much. What’s going on? Are we actually seeing important changes or is today’s hyper-connected society just making us feel like catastrophes are happening constantly?

This article explains how America has a water crisis that’s making water cost too much money for millions of families. You’ve probably heard about what happened in Flint, Michigan. The story explains how a third of Americans won’t be able to afford to pay for their water by 2020.

However, lots of rain and rising water levels have made it hazardous for fishermen or any boats to go out on Lake Ontario. They’ve got massive flooding and way too much water. Events have been canceled in New York since the lake is dangerous. Even recreational boaters have been negatively impacted and are delaying going out in the water.

You’ve probably heard about drought conditions in California over recent years. Now Nestle’s Arrowhead water has been called out with challenges around how much money they’re making by bottling and selling California’s water. Is this because public agencies and government entities have dropped the ball? You can decide for yourself about the sustainability of water and how renewable of a resource it is. How much profit should gigantic multinational businesses be allowed to gain from public natural resources?

And there’s deserts like the Middle East, where it rarely rains and water is a really precious resource. However, they’ve got enough money to make it feasible to bring an iceberg to the UAE. Will they do it? Take a gander at this story for more on how these iceberg cowboys are hoping to be the first folks to tow an iceberg thousands of miles and kilometers.

Now how does today’s technology help with all of these water resources management needs? These stories all tie together in the fact that water monitoring systems help to effectively address all of our water needs. After all, how many days can you and your family live without water?

Hardware manufacturers around the world make rugged, reliable sensors for monitoring water and fluids. For example, level sensors are made by companies like Flowline, In-Situ, and Senix. And flow meters are made by businesses such as McCrometer and EKM Metering. All of your various sensor hardware integrates to make an efficient water monitoring system with web-based cloud software.

How about storing excess water underground to use at a later time when you’ve got a drought? This ‘thinking outside the box’ idea is used in California, Florida, and the pacific northwest in the U.S. Now Houston, Texas, is considering what they can do. Along with the help of hydrologists and engineers, this article details how Texas is researching how rainwater can be quickly pumped so it can avoid dangerous flooding conditions.

Water quality and drinkable water is critical for you and your family. However, even as a water works case was won by farmers that should have helped with water pollution, the water is still polluted in Iowa according to this story.

What can you do about the need for better water monitoring?

How do you deploy effective water monitoring systems?

Water monitoring systems can be powered via any power source, like standard mains 110V wall outlets or a solar panel.

You can use the most appropriate internet connectivity for each deployment, whether it’s WiFi, GSM mobile cell network, or Ethernet.

Sensor systems measure fluids and regularly report values to a tools website where you can configure air quality or water warnings and alerts.

Water Monitoring Systems are being deployed and installed around the United States. Take a gander at this write-up on a new city water monitoring system in Bismarck.

Water monitoring systems save money for your government, business organization, company, or city by saving employees and staff the time needed to go to every water meter for manual readings. Water flow meters and utility meters give your teams any readings from the network, at any time.

Suspicious water leaks are happening in Texas. At least according to the Mayor in Kemp, recent water line breaks are suspicious in nature.

Sabotaging or attacking a public water system and supplies is a terroristic attack according to this article, which has more details on why the city’s citizens need to boil water or purchase water in bottles until water quality can be checked and system pressure restored.

Water wells in Pennsylvania are part of fresh, new water monitoring programs. Water data and information from public water systems and groundwater systems will help in determining groundwater sources, movement patterns and characteristics.

Deployments and developments like this around the USA are critical for industrial organizations, regulatory agencies, public officials and representatives. See this story for more info.

Helping businesses conserve water and predict water expenses is more important every day. You, your teams, and your organization have more options and choices for monitoring water, like tools for business analytics and data used for monetizing water risk.

Total dissolved solids (TDS), and other unwanted minerals and nutrients, like ammonia or salt, are things you don’t want too much of in your water supply. Companies like Microsoft are getting involved in water quality risk tools you can learn more about here. Demand for monitoring water is steadily increasing and today’s Industrial Internet of Things / IoT sensors make it easier and more affordable for you.

Whether you need to receive e-mail or text message alerts, analyze historical water data, view what’s going on with your water in a web dashboard, or anything else, we’re happy to help you with your remote monitoring needs.

Please don’t hesitate to Contact Us at Info@Valarm.net if you’ve got any questions on remotely monitoring water, air quality, industrial equipment, assets, or anything else!